A FORUM FOR ART AS SOCIAL PRACTICE AND PARTICIPATORY ART; COMMENTS ARE OPEN.READINGS REFER TO "LIVING AS FORM: SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART FROM 1991-2011"

12/5/08

Making Art

Making Collaborative art is a very interesting and intriguing process. On one hand, if you have a collective, it is easy to participate and the ideas always seem to be free flowing. At the same time it is harder maybe to get everything done in a timely matter, every detail has to be discussed, thought out, every opinion needs to be heard. But the collective is always there to push you forward to do more, exciting things. On the other hand, working by yourself, you really get to enjoy the process of just creating, whatever comes to mind just putting it on the paper. If you don't like it get rid of it, no need to discuss (except maybe with yourself if you've been in the studio too long). There is the satisfaction of accomplishment, an often tangible manifest of what you have been doing with your time, something tangible, almost like a trophy for a job well done. You could argue that you can get the same sense of accomplishment in a collective, but i just don't feel that way.

For example, growing up I was a swimmer, a very individual sport, always trying to beat your own personal best time. There was nothing better than pushing yourself having nothing to depend on other than your own muscles. And sometimes it is hard to push yourself to go to practice. But ultimately the struggle makes it seem even more like an accomplishment. Now playing on a soccer team, I do get a sense of pride when my team wins, but never the sense of wow I really worked as hard as I could and look at what I can do. Both are very satisfying in their own ways. I would not say I enjoyed one more than the other they are just very different feelings.

I feel the same way about the work that we have created this semester. I truly enjoyed working collaboratively, and I think the end result was definitely not something I could have gotten on my own, but I don't think that that feeling will ever fully replace my desire to just sit down with paint brush and create something that expresses my feelings. And I agree with Nikki, I often have a hard time pushing myself to sit down and just paint, especially with so many distractions around, but in the end again, I think the struggle makes the work even more satisfying. I truly hope there is space and time for me to work collaboratively and independently in the future.